When Leaders Land In Jail: Prominent Gulf Businesswoman Gets Ten Years, Vows To Appeal

Marsha Lazareva, one of the most prominent foreign businesswomen in the Middle East, has vowed to appeal her conviction for misusing public funds in Kuwait after being sentenced to ten years hard labor.

The Russian national and mother of a 4-year-old stood trial on May 6 in relation to her position as chief executive and vice-chairman of private equity group KGL Investment (KGLI).

Lazareva, who has led KGLI since 2007, was found guilty in Kuwait City of illegally taking Kuwait Port Authority monies. She continues to deny the charge.

Lazareva and another defendant were jointly fined 22 million Kuwaiti dinars ($73 million) and ordered to return funds of 11 million Kuwaiti dinars ($36 million).

Six defendants in addition to Lazareva were given imprisonment terms of between ten and 15 years.

In her only interview following the case, Lazareva told me that she will pursue her innocence through an appeal.

“In spite of numerous requests by my lawyers, the judge denied me full access to all accusatory documents and also denied my calling of all my witnesses,” she said.

"When I was accused in April 2017, I immediately returned to Kuwait from a business trip to Europe to clear my good name and reputation.

"All my human and civil rights were completely violated during the court hearings. The judge made many racist comments toward me during the case and singled me out as a woman.”

Complaint

Lazareva's case began when a former KGLI employee filed a complaint that she had been involved in spying and intelligence gathering on behalf of a foreign country.

She was accused in April 2017, arrested last November and then held in prison for seven weeks before being released on bail of 9 million Kuwaiti dinars ($30 million).

On her release, she was given a travel ban and had a team of government agents tailing her every move.

However, as her legal team at London-based law firm Brown Rudnick was preparing to defend her against the spying charges, those accusations were replaced with a charge of assisting embezzlement relating to the period between April 2006 and March 2013.

Lazareva's lawyers were given one week to examine 18,000 pages of allegations before she faced Judge Metaeb Al Alredi on Sunday, May 6.

Verdict

Lazareva was found guilty of assisting two of the other defendants to embezzle 17 million Kuwaiti dinars from the Kuwait Port Authority by agreeing to the transfer to KGLI of money that the authority had invested in The Port Fund.

According to sources in the court for the hearing, Lazaraeva was refused permission to leave the court to go to the bathroom when feeling ill.

Her defense lawyer is said to have been told by Judge Al Alredi to “let her vomit in the corner at the back of the room.”

Lazareva, 44, is now sharing a cramped cell with seven other women in Kuwait’s notorious Sulaibiya prison, which has an official capacity to house 2,500 prisoners but is currently home to 6,000.

KGLI manages The Port Fund, a private investment company focusing on development and investing in infrastructure, logistics, transportation, oil, gas, energy and industry in the Middle East, Asia and emerging markets.

The Port Fund invests in mid-sized, high-potential port management and logistics-related businesses, including a joint venture that built logistics hub Global Gateway Logistics City on a former U.S. military base in The Philippines.

"Miscarriage of Justice"

Neil Micklethwaite, London-based partner of Brown Rudnick, said plans have been lodged for an appeal against the conviction.

"This is one of the most extraordinary miscarriages of justice I have come across in 30 years,” he stated. The appeal is expected to be heard over the next month.

I interview the heads of the world's biggest businesses about how they lead their companies and deal with the personal and business pressures of being at the top. A business journalist for 29 years, including time for The Daily Telegraph as US Business Editor and Associate ...